


Moving

by GalekhXigisi



Category: Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: Background Julia "Jules" Argent/Carmen Sandiego | Black Sheep, Carmen Sandiego is SOFT, Fire, Gen, Hinted at Julia "Jules" Argent/Carmen Sandiego | Black Sheep, Player (Carmen Sandiego) is a Prodigy, Player (carmen sandiego) has ADHD, Player moves in, Sorry that's just canon, Trans Player (Carmen Sandiego 2019), Trans Player (Carmen Sandiego)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-11-15 09:28:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20863985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalekhXigisi/pseuds/GalekhXigisi
Summary: Player moves in with Carmen after V.I.L.E. starts setting up on the other side Niagra Falls. It's soft little oneshot.





	Moving

Player wasn’t ready to move out of Canada. Hell, he never was, not ever, but when he saw V.I.L.E. beginning to set up their new home base on the other side of Niagra Falls, well,  _ he _ didn’t want to stick around. Not only would he be putting himself in danger, but the rest of his team. He couldn’t do that, not while they had gotten so far. They were three years deep into this. Player was finally sixteen, he could legally  _ travel. _ He supposes he could keep his home in his name,  _ but, _ if V.I.L.E. even found it… 

Player grabs all his tech, sure to leave it where it was on the sidewalk. It was  _ Canada _ in a somewhat nice neighborhood, it wasn’t like someone was going to steal his shit while he set his home up in flames.  _ Just leave the oven on, _ he thinks to himself as he walks back into the home he had grown up in since he was a child. He had bought it himself with a shit ton of fucking over banks with “orphan accounts” and so on, finally moving to white hat hacking after that. It was just enough to get him by. 

He walks to the living room, lighting the two candles he always had there. It wasn’t like the candles in his room he sometimes lit. These didn’t have a smell, just that plain white candle that he saw that Americans light in those Target commercials Ivy sent him when she thought they were too planned to be anywhere near real, always laughing at the irony of it. They even had the little wrap around it and glass base. 

He left no clues that he even existed. He had already burned his clothes and so on a couple of days before, just leaving himself a few outfits and his tech left. Even his mattress didn’t survive it. There was just his desk, chair, and whatever he had left as furniture. The pseudo name that somehow passed as  _ normal _ wasn’t traceable back to him, or really  _ anyone _ with legitimacy. Sure, there was an existing Peter J. Crowley, but who was to say Player was that person, or even Peter J. Crowley himself? He was just the previous owner of the home. 

The over was still on. The home wouldn’t blow for another long while. With this raging snow storm, he’d be able to leave no trace, especially with the car coming to pick him up and the jet taking him all the way to where Carmen would knowingly be, along with her little circus. All he had to do was follow along with his little plan. It wasn’t hard. If Zack, Ivy, Carmen, Shadowsan, and the newly appointed Julia could do it, then he most certainly could. After all, it wasn’t exactly the  _ first time _ he had done so. He hopes it’s his last for a long time, though. 

-

Player wraps his knuckles against the door, holding tight to the handle of one of many bags. He hadn’t told  _ anyone _ he was doing this. He had just told the gang to take a rest day, which they had  _ \- reluctantly - _ agreed to after a rather stern  _ (as stern as the short stack Canadian could get) _ talking to from Player. From what they knew, Player was just going to be AFK for a couple of days. He was probably going to be either decoding the V.I.L.E. or A.C.M.E. files or maybe even going to the doctor, who knew with that kid and his elusive life? But Player had just been planning on severing any and all connection from anything and everything in Canada, easily leaving an untraceable trail in his tracks. 

The door opens to reveal a tall woman, the singular woman Player had become such amazing friends with, the woman who was now twenty-two and living with her self-proclaimed family, all of whom seemed to be looking behind her, with the exception of Julia, who sat on the couch in the background. 

“Player,” she asks with a raised brow, staring at her friend. 

“Surprise,” he tries, giving a frail attempt at jazz hands, “V.I.L.E. was setting up basically across the street from me?” It’s more of a question than anything, but he knows Carmen understands. She was the one that implemented the rule that if he saw V.I.L.E., he got the fuck out of there as soon as he could.

“You’re so  _ short,” _ Zack calls out from behind Ivy.

His twin sister pushes him back. “Yeah, he’s a  _ baby.” _

“I’m not a baby,” Player supplies with a half-hearted glare, “I’m just small and very young.” 

“And  _ fiesty,” _ Zack teases with a smirk. 

_ “Children,” _ Shadowsan chokes as he turns away, walking back into their base. 

Zack suddenly gasps. “So Player  _ will _ get his own room here?” 

Carmen’s expression softens as she pulls Player inside, the door shutting behind her. Ivy and Zack each grab a few bags. “So  _ this _ is why you wanted us to take an off day? So you could have a surprise visit?’ 

“Surprise  _ move in,” _ Julia corrects from her spot on the couch with a teasing smile. She’s still focused on her computer, obviously reading _ something. _ Player is pretty sure it’s one of the books he sent her a while ago. She was a pretty avid reader and had yet to turn down any of his book challenges. 

Carmen sends her a wink.  _ “Move in, _ yeah. Surprise new roommate!” 

“New roommate,” the twins chant in the background as they rush by with his bag, stumbling up the stairs with their bumbling excitement. To be technical, they already  _ had _ a room set up for Player somewhere around the first month of moving it, but that had been a  _ just in case _ sort of situation, as well as a teasing  _ if you ever want to visit. _ He knew where it was. He knew there was a desk in it, as well as a bed and a few other things. It was much bigger than the room he now- the room he  _ did _ have. It also had two windows instead of just the one Player was accustomed to having, though it was almost always out. 

She leads him to the couch, smiling at her friend. “Great, now we’ve got the whole gang here.” 

“Player is Scooby,” Zack yells from up the stairs, though there comes the distinct  _ “Ow!” _ just after, notably coming with the sound of a skin-against-skin smack. 

“Carm isn’t Shaggy,” he hears Ivy yell. 

“But they're best friends!”

-

Player crosses his legs, slumping against the side of the couch as he slowly scrolls through the code. He’s already decrypted it, as well as successfully accessed all of A.C.M.E.’s files, and then some. He had everything at the tip of his fingers when it came to the government, if he were being honest. The little fidget spinner smoothly glides between his fingers, bored eyes staring at the screen. He had come to find that things were much more interesting here than his old home, yes, but he had the genuine attention span of a fucking  _ gnat. _ Sure, he was great when it came to computers and culture and just general  _ knowledge, _ but he couldn’t keep himself occupied if it came down to it. 

“S’got you twisted,” Carmen softly asks as she sits down beside him, bottle of water in her hand and sweatband on her forehead, notably meaning she had just gotten done training. She had probably been training with Shadowsan if her casual outfit was any sort of tell. He had a habit of calling her at random times just to train. She always went along with it. 

“Just bored,” he replies. He had been training, too. After pulling off enough shady shit as he had, it wasn’t really much. Despite being short and swamped in that big ass hoodie, he knew how to bar fight. He could fight dirty, he could fend for his own, even without all the training the others had. He had gotten by on his own long enough. 

“Activity cravings or generally bored,” she asks. 

Player really was thankful for his best friend. She understood him far more than anyone could ever dare try to. She knew about what he had kindly referred to as  _ “activity cravings,” _ the want to do something but not knowing what that  _ thing _ was. Did he want to go on an aimless walk at two in the morning? Did he want to run a marathon? There were a million different things, a million different  _ maybes, _ but not a single genuine answer. 

“Activity craving without the energy,” supplies the teenager currently scrolling through coding. “But also generally bored, too.” 

She hums with a smile. “We could play hide and seek?” 

“That wouldn’t be fair to either of us,” he scoffs with a smile, “You’re a trained spy meant to disappear and I’m a small kid who knows how to hide.” 

She shrugs with a hum, “I guess you’re right.” Carmen relaxes against the couch. “We could cook whatever we have in the kitchen.” 

Player thinks that over for a moment, lulling the words around his head. Contrary to the  _ (actually incredibly) _ popular belief among the group, Player was the best cook out of them all. After years of being alone and having nothing better to do, he taught himself how to cook with very little, how to just generally  _ cook. _ As he had found, he cooked  _ great _ and was often designated chief when the group got bored of take-out, which was actually rather common. He didn’t mind cooking, either. It gave him a sense of family normality when the others joined in and cooked with him. It was how he imagined normal teenagers felt when they cooked with their siblings at two in the morning because it felt like their life was falling apart. 

“Okay,” he agrees with a final shrug, shutting the laptop with a hum. 

Carmen eyes her friend for a moment before stand up, too. “No binding past twelve, remember,” she asks with a raised brow. 

“It’s past twelve,” he asks, genuinely surprised. 

Carmen nods as she turns to her phone. “Yeah, it’s one in the morning.” 

He hums at the older-sister-slash-mom figure, easily sliding out of the fabric with a few trained movements that mirrored the same way Ivy, Julia, and Carmen took off their bras as soon as they got back from a mission. He couldn’t blame them in the least, remembering the shitty days where he had the same cycle, not that he exactly left his home much, what with being homeschooled and finishing early at a young age, no older than a twelve-year-old prodigy. 

The night dissolves into making seven boxes of brownies and eating what’s in one of the pans while binge-watching horror movies until the two inevitably pass out. 

**Author's Note:**

> I really do love them. Player is my son and y'all aren't appreciating him enough. 
> 
> Anyways, please leave comments! I take constructive criticism!
> 
> Please join my Discord server!  
https://discord.gg/eGkwayy


End file.
